Masimbaashe Matongo feels like he is in the perfect environment at Hull FC with the sometimes brutal honesty of coach Lee Radford key to his progression.

After making his Super League debut back in 2015, Matongo didn’t feature for FC the following year only to enjoy more game-time last term as he played a total of seven matches in all competitions.

Now the towering forward aims to feature even more during the upcoming campaign and says the advice of Radford is helping him in his pursuit of climbing up the pecking order at the Black and Whites.

Matongo, who performed well in Hull’s pre-season opening defeat to Hull KR on Sunday, highlights his physical development aided by the tutelage of Head of High Performance Paul Hatton as a key reason for his progress, while Radford’s tough love has also been beneficial.

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“I feel like we have had a really good pre-season with Paul Hatton putting us through our paces so it was good to finally get out there on the field,” Matongo told the Mail. “Physically I felt good and that I could have played more minutes if I needed to.

“I always appreciate Radders’ honesty as well. He doesn’t mince his words and he tells you exactly how it is. That’s what you want as a player who is trying to improve every day.

RISING STAR: Hull FC's Masimbaashe Matongo.

“You won’t get better if you are doing the same mistakes. You want a coach to tell you where you are lacking and then you can kick on from there.”

Matongo led from the front at the weekend as he started alongside Brad Fash in the FC front row. The former reserves star was pleased to earn the starting role and adds that he’s looking forward to ripping in again if selected for Hull’s final trial match at home to Catalans Dragons on Sunday.

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“When Rads told me I was starting it was a great feeling,” Matongo added. “Testing myself from the start was a good learning curve because it’s different to coming off the bench and making an impact. When you begin the game everyone is coming at you as hard as they can because they have less fatigue.

“Catalans will be another good contest and a test for us. We’ll probably have more first-team players available for that one. We’ll see where we are at as a full team.”